Sticky Toffee Pudding

I'm always amazed when this dessert comes out of the oven. The batter is bathed in boiling water before baking but results in a very cake-like-looking product. That is, until you spoon it up into your awaiting bowl. Then you notice that luscious sauce hiding at the bottom of the baking dish. Because most sticky toffee puddings wouldn't be totally over-the-top without a little cream to 'dress' it, mine certainly gets the same treatment. Heavenly...

Easy Sticky-Toffee Pudding

For the cake:
100 g dark muscovado sugar
175 g self-raising flour
125 ml full-fat milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla, extract
50 g unsalted butter, melted
200 g chopped rolled dates

For the sauce:
200 g dark muscovado sugar
25 g unsalted butter, approximately, in little blobs
500 ml boiling water

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and butter a 1 ½ quart baking dish.Combine the sugar with the flour in a large bowl. Measure out the milk, beat in the egg, vanilla and melted butter, and pour this mixture over the sugar and flour, stirring just to combine. Fold in the dates, then pour into the prepared dish.

Sprinkle over the 200 g (3/4 cup) dark muscovado sugar and dot with the butter. Pour over the boiling water and transfer to the oven. Check after 45 minutes, though you might find the pudding needs 5 or 10 minutes more. The top of the pudding should be springy and spongy when it’s cooked; underneath, the butter, dark muscovado sugar and boiling water will have turned into a rich, sticky sauce. Serve with vanilla ice cream, crème fraiche, double or single cream as desired.

Serves 6-8.

Source: Nigella Bites, copyright 2002